Here's a picture of three mills near the river Rotte in the Netherlands. They have been used to pump away the water from the land. Since the invention of electricity and electrical pumps they have lost their function, though.

Nice shot. I've been to The Netherlands many times but do not think I've ever seen a windmill. Are they mainly in coastal areas? My trips have taken me mainly to Wageningen and Utrecht.

02-04-2006, 08:46 PM

American Nomad

Nice Prospero. The town of Solvang, California was built in the style of the Dutch. If I am remembering right the citizens of this small town are mainly of Dutch decent. This is just one of those buildings taken before I was really into photography.

02-04-2006, 08:50 PM

American Nomad

And what the heck, here is one more. Believe it or not, this is a pizza parlor!

02-05-2006, 02:36 AM

Prospero

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glenn Kennedy

Nice shot. I've been to The Netherlands many times but do not think I've ever seen a windmill. Are they mainly in coastal areas? My trips have taken me mainly to Wageningen and Utrecht.

Thanks Glenn and American Nomad. Many of the windmills in the Netherlands are to be found in the western part of the country. A large part of this region is below the sealevel, so there's always a need to pump water away. Also, in this region a lot of peat has been escavated to be used as a fuel, which resulted in many lakes. The water in these lakes was later pumped away using windmills, so it could be used as arable land. I believe the place where I live, actually was a lake in the old days :). By the way, the Dutch have not only removed many of the lakes, but they have even created a new province, Flevoland, in a sea that originally was called de Zuiderzee. Also, the port of Rotterdam, one of the largest ports in the world, is being expanded into the sea. The following is sometimes said about the Netherlands: "God created the world, but the Dutch created the Netherlands"

Utrecht and Wageningen are more to the east of the country. They are above sea-level. Therefore you're not likely to find windmills there. Perhaps there are still some, though, that have also been used in industrial processes.

Nice shot of the windmill in Solvang, Nomad. Do you know if it actually has been used for anything or if it was just built by the inhabitants to make them feel more at home?

Here's a picture of a pump which was build during the Industrial Revolution and uses steam rather than wind power. It was used to remove all the water from the Haarlemmermeer (a huge lake which was growing quickly and was starting to threathen Amsterdam).